Start Again
by Corazie
Summary: What if the past fifteen years had been nothing? What if you just woke up one morning; a strange bed with white sheets, faces crowded over head, a sharp smell of disinfectant?


What if the past fifteen years had been nothing? What if you just woke up one morning; a strange bed with white sheets, faces crowded over head, a sharp smell of disinfectant?

**Start Again**

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My eyes. Her arm was shaking with the effort of raising her hand to her face to rub at her eyes and shield them from the glare of the sun.

"Jean! Jean! She's awake! Our baby's awake!" A deep masculine voice was shouting from Hermione's side. Large hands grasped hers and a face came in to focus.

"Dad?" Her voice was quiet and croaky, as though she'd been silent for days or screaming for hours. She blinked as she tried to get her eyes to adjust to the light. "Dad, where's Ron?" She moved her head from side to side. There were no flashes of red. "Where's Rose? Where's Hugo?" Her voice was rising, she was starting to panic.

"Hermione, darling! You're awake. I love you so much my princess." It was her mother, but she looked different, younger. "It feels like so long since I last saw you, last spoke to you." She pulled Hermione up in to her arms, crushing her in the embrace.

"Where are they? Where are my babies?" Jean looked at her daughter, confused and worried. She placed a hand on Hermione's shoulder.

"Darling, the doctors told us that this might happen. It's not all that unusual under the circumstances." She glanced down at her watch. "The doctor should be around soon."

"Doctors?" Her heart was racing, thumping against her chest. "Why are there doctors?"

Suddenly a door opposite her bed opened and a tall man walked in. He had dark hair to his shoulders, and dark eyes peered from a pale face with a hooked nose. She stiffled a scream against clenched teeth.

"Hello, Hermione." His voice was like velvet. "Your waking up has come as quite a surprise to us. It's been almost five years, we feared that you would never wake up." He paused and glanced at her parents. "It would, I think, be less stressful for Hermione if I were to talk to her alone. Explain everything."

Jean Granger squeezed her daughters hand. "It's going to be difficult, we'll be back soon." She stood up and walked out of the room with her husband.

Hermione's eyes widened as she realised that she was alone in the room with _him_, and she dropped her chin to her chest and scrunched up her eyes, blocking out the tall figure that was standing at the foot of her bed. Her pulse was racing and she struggled to slow her breathing, to calm down.

"Hermione," He had one hand on his chin, thinking of how to say what he had to say. "Hermione, you've been in a coma for the past five years." He didn't pause, didn't give her time to do anything more than gasp and cover her mouth, eyes wide open. "Everything is a little different now, things have changed. People you used to know have moved on. They're all grown up now, Hermione. They're at college, university. You're going to have to start again. You've missed the whole of your secondary education, it's going to take a lot of effort. Your parents said you were smart before the accident, but we don't know yet if you suffered any serious brain damage."

Hermione took a deep breath. "Where's Ron? And Rose and Hugo? And what happened to me? Where am I? What do you mean, I've missed my secondary education? I went to Hogwarts!"

The dark haired doctor with his hooked nose looked at her sharply. "Hogwarts? You're not the first to say that. It seems to be a common name for the world of which you dream when you are in a coma. Who are Ron and Rose and Hugo? Your friends?" He didn't answer her other questions.

Hermione gasped and hugged herself. "They're my... Ron... He's my... We were married!" Tears rolled down her face. "Where are my babies? Where are Rose and Hugo?"

"Hermione, my name is Doctor Snape. You were hit by a car five years ago in July, a week after you finished primary school. You suffered significant head injuries and since then have been in a coma. We will put you through counselling, we will do all that it takes to make you better. For now, I can only tell you to forget about your dreams. What you experience during the past five years was a series of constructs, creations of your mind."

"I'm twenty six! It's been fifteen years since I was eleven! It's just been my birthday..." She was panicking, shouting. Tears stung at her eyes and rolled down her face. She clawed at her hair.

"It has just been your birthday, Hermione. Your sixteenth. Perhaps you thought you aged more in your mind? Maybe your constructed world of Hogwarts had a quicker passing of time. This will be hard, Hermione. But you can get through it. You had an almost constant state of brain activity. You're a smart girl, a strong girl. You can do it." Without her noticing, Doctor Snape had edged around her bed and now had a hand on her shoulder. "I will leave you now. You need to get used to being awake and already you look tired. You need to calm down. A nurse will be in shortly to check up on you and in two hours you'll be woken up for lunch."

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Should I continue? Or just leave it as this crappy oneshot?


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